Friday, June 22, 2012

Odd Choice.

One of the Canadian Bravo channel's weekday offerings is Flashpoint, a series about members of a Toronto Police emergency response unit. I caught part of yesterday's episode, and was a bit surprised it was aired. In the episode "Attention Shoppers" a bullied teenage girl shoots one of the girls assaulting her in a crowded shopping mall, leading to a lockdown of the mall and further violence from the injured girl's fellow gang members.

It's less than a month since the June 2nd shooting at Toronto's Eaton Centre shopping complex. Two people died as a result, and several others were injured. The shooter and the two dead men were all alledgedly connected to the Sir Thugs gang. So it seems a bit odd to me that Bravo would air an episode with obvious parallels to a real life tragedy so close to the event. The central characters in the TV episode may have been all women, and the reason for the shooting different, but it still revolved around a shooting in a mall. You'd think Bravo would be worried about offending or triggering viewers. On the other hand Bravo airs the series five days a week, so it may be hard to skip an episode without causing problems for your schedule.

Incidentally if you're a fan of Fresh TV's Total Drama and Stoked! cartoons you may want to catch this episode when it airs again in a few weeks. The leader of the gang girls is played by Kristen Fairlie, the voice of Bridgette and Emma in the two series respectively.